Silent
by Wishing-for-a-Zoro-plushie
Summary: OPU Zoro Sanji--FRIENDSHIP-- Zoro's lost his voice. To the others it doesn't matter so much, but Sanji's starting to realise how much he likes/needs their fights. --COMPLETE--


**Crossposted to the op_fanforall on livejournal. **

**Request:**_** "**__**For some reason, Zoro has temporarily lost his voice. To others it matters little, but Sanji is starting to realise how much he actually likes his fights with Zoro. What will he do when he have no one to fight with, and while feeling Zoro and him getting far apart?"**_

**Yeah yeah, I post there, so what? :P **

**Okay, so, this is strong Zoro/Sanji friendship. I don't write the pairing, so stop cringing/hoping. o.o I love Sanji and Zoro friendship though, and love Sanji angsting over Zoro being hurt more. *is shot multiple times* **

**rating: T for swearing**

**One-shot**

_**Silent**_

At first it had been a hoot! Zoro not being able to talk, yell, or do much of anything due to this weird cold he'd contracted via a mosquito bite on the last Island they'd been on. He wasn't in immediate danger, so it was easy to laugh.

He was more tired than usual, if that was even possible, and Chopper had his beady little doctor eyes set on the swordsman nearly 24/7. Giving him medicine, telling him to rest (which Zoro didn't have much complaint to), telling him he couldn't train (which Zoro nearly strangled him for), making him eat and trying to get his voice back but never succeeding.

Luffy found it hilarious to poke Zoro in the head repeatedly until the swordsman let out an indignant yell that sounded more like a crow caw-ing at them... on low, low volume. Usopp made up stories about the silent CawCaw tribes to distract Chopper and Luffy a while from the older teen out of pity for the poor guy.

Robin and Nami didn't see much change, Zoro not really having much to say unless he felt like it anyway. They were mildly worried, but Chopper assured them the swordsman would be fine. He wasn't going to die. ... He hoped. The others just enjoyed picking on the swordsman because of his hilarious reactions and the fact he couldn't DOanything about it.

After the first week had passed, Sanji had begun noticing a weird... something, that he couldn't identify. In himself. A... longing? Che, no. What kinda stupid crap idea was that? His longings were for Nami-swan and Robin-chwan only!~

He recognised it after a while though, as not being one of THOSElongings, but something else. He hummed in thought, idly chopping up ingredients for that night's dinner. What was this weird... THING he was missing?

Zoro had come in, grabbed a bottle of sake from the fridge, and was heading out when the chef finally spied him from the corner of his eye.

"Oi oi. Chopper said no alcohol. It messes with the medicine you're having." the chef frowned, wiping his hands on a towel and turning. Zoro scowled, eyes narrowed as if to say 'So what?'. Thick headed moron, thinking he could handle everything under the sun. Che... he wouldn't be able to when the alcohol and medicine mixed to create a lethal sleeping drug. A permanentsleeping drug.

"Put it back, Marimo. I'm tired, and I'm not dealing with your crap today." the chef put his hands on his hips, ears pricked for any bubbling from the pot behind him. Not meant to boil yet... ... No crap from Zoro today, huh? He hadn't had to deal with anything from Zoro for the past week.

Zoro huffed in annoyance, glancing at the bottle and then returning his glare to Sanji again. The blonde could see the way Zoro's mind was working.

"Yeah? I have to put up with YOUR crap every day, deal with it!" ... but the swordsman's lips remained sealed shut. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't retaliate... and it was killing him.

Sanji's eye twitched slightly at the stubbornness before he stalked over and grabbed the bottle away from Zoro... with surprising ease. The swordsman blinked before he frowned down at his hand, flexing the fingers slightly in almost confusion.

His face fell a little before he snapped a glare back up to the chef again, remaining there stubbornly. He wasn't moving until he somehow got what he wanted. Sanji watched him, his face softening a little. He couldn't imagine not being able to train, do as you please, and have Chopper looming over your shoulder every five seconds. Still, it was only temporary, he should get over it already.

The sickness made it hard for Zoro to use his strength. He felt like he weighed three hundred times the heaviest training weight he had, and his hands shook every now and again. More often than not, which bugged him so much he had to push them in his pockets just to hide the weakness from himself.

Watching the swordsman, Sanji shook his head and took the bottle back to the fridge, the thought of what he missed finally striking him like lightning that numbed him from the inside out. He missed Zoro. The fights, the yelling, the way to get their aggression out. It kept them awake, happy, and gave them something to do in general when incredibly bored.

"Get out and go rest somewhere, would ya?" Sanji scowled, the silence between them tense, awkward... and driving him absolutely insane. He'd enjoyed being able to 'accidentally' kick Zoro on the way past, and not get something in return there for a while.

Then it had become tedious. A chore. Bullies bully to get a reaction to amuse themselves. Same basic principal. Sanji could do without the bullying and being bullied, but... it... wasn't really bullying when he thought about it. It was a weird friendship thing they did. No real reason for it, just one of those things.

Now all he wanted was to stay as far away from the bastard as he could. The only way he knew Zoro was still there, was the soft shuffle of feet. Glancing back with a scowl, he shook his head when the swordsman opened his mouth to talk.

"Shut up, moron. The more you try to talk, the longer it'll take for you to get better." the chef reprimanded, turning to face him again.

Zoro stared at him, before scowling and doing the only thing he could right now to get out the pent up aggression within him. He gave Sanji a rude gesture involving a certain middle finger, and then stalked out, feet dragging slightly from being so heavy.

Sanji just sighed, before returning to the stew he was making. Stupid moronic marimo, going and getting sick and not being able to talk and fight with him. Che. The bastard had probably done it to piss him off. Sounded logical enough.

Two weeks passed and still Zoro couldn't talk. The novelty had long since worn off, and Chopper was beginning to fear that maybe he'd missed something about the sickness, and the swordsman's vocal chords had been damaged. Or his voice box. Something.

The others weren't overly worried. They were getting used to this new Zoro. Though, the heaviness meant fighting was a task he couldn't undertake without a great deal of effort. Chopper had suspended his training, his weights, and any fighting with Sanji was strictly prohibited, or the reindeer promised he'd use Arm Point to bash Zoro into unconsciousness.

The swordsman didn't believe him for one second, but hadn't picked fights with Sanji since. Something in Chopper's eyes when the little guy turned into a BIG guy, made him seriously reconsider his own life choices at that point in time.

The blonde now felt weird. Even Nami noticed when he gave her a special snack or drink, that he wasn't as twirly and flirty as usual. The hearts would never go away, they were like a permanent addition to the chef, but... he didn't noodle as much. He just simply didn't have the energy.

Sanji had taken to ignoring Zoro, and Zoro did the same thing, unwilling to force contact between them because it had become so awkward and uncomfortable. The two could be side by side, and wouldn't acknowledge the other's presence with even a glance. They were invisible to each other.

A month passed, and though Zoro's strength had returned, and he was able to fight and train again, his voice remained stubbornly gone. By now, Zoro and Sanji's friendship, no matter how bad it had been to begin with, seemed not to exist.

Nami and Robin received coffees, drinks, special snacks like always, but there was no energy in their deliveries. The blonde would set them down, give them a small coo, turn, and retreat back to the galley again.

The crew found it weird, and odd, that the one person who Sanji hated so SO much, made the blonde's world go round. Usopp deducted it was time to talk to the blonde. ... So he shoved Luffy, Chopper, Nami and Robin in front of him to do it.

Upon entering the galley, they noted everything seemed the same, smelled the same, and Sanji was busy washing dishes... the same. The blonde turned and blinked at everyone, a cigarette caught between his lips and smoking gently.

"... What?" he asked, staring at them. The crew blinked for a second, before Luffy squeezed his head through and grinned.

"Food!" the captain cried. Sanji stared at him, before slowly turning back to the dishes and continuing with them again. No swearing, no kicking, not even a reply of 'Crap kid, just wait already.'. Nothing...

The rest of the crew retreated, watching Zoro lean on the railing and stare out to sea as if in deep, deep thought. ... Upon closer inspection, they realised he'd simply fallen asleep in that position. Chopper enlisted Luffy to carry the swordsman back to his hammock. Zoro didn't bother waking up.

Night had fallen pretty quickly a few days after the crew had tried to talk to the chef and Sanji was wrapped in a blanket, sitting behind the figurehead and watching the sea ahead for any signs of approaching Marine vessels. It was meant to be Usopp's turn, but the chef had taken it due to a lack of sleep anyway.

The long nose had been hesitant, feeling it wasn't really fair on Sanji, but the chef had just smiled, shrugged and sat down, saying it was the long nose's choice but he was gonna sit there anyway. Usopp had left not long after, giving his blanket to the blonde and retreating back to the cabins again, not liking how quiet the other had become

Sanji sighed softly as a light breeze made his hair flutter slightly, the bang over his eye lifting and falling and making his vision seem funny. Light, dark, light, dark, light. He guessed... from the position of the moon, that it was just past midnight... It was meant to be Zoro's watch next, but earlier that day Chopper had volunteered Nami for it. It was a mark of the slight worry she still had for the swordsman, that she didn't object... much.

"Oi. I heard Usopp say you were sitting up here alone." a voice said behind him, snapping him out of his reverie. The blonde shrugged slightly, not registering where it came from for a few seconds before his eyes slowly widened and he spun, staring stupidly at the swordsman who was leaning on the railing of the stairs.

Zoro raised an eyebrow, before offering half a shrug and looking out to sea. He shifted from where he was and moved around to sit roughly down beside the chef, mouth opening impossibly wide in a giant yawn only possible for him, and Luffy with the rubber mouth to do.

"Sa, at least it's a nice night to be on watch." the swordsman shrugged, arms crossed over the swords now resting between his upraised knees. His civil conversation with the chef was... awkward, but not so much so that it was like Zoro didn't WANTit in some way.

Sanji just stared for a few seconds, before he looked ahead again and nodded a little. This... was weird. But... he felt relief wash through him at that deep, thrumming voice. Something relaxing inside him, making him breathe out a long puff of smoke before speaking again.

"Yeah." he shrugged, "You're talking again." He'd never heard anything so wonderful. ... Urk, did he just think that? Zoro's voice was... well, Zoro's, but a lot hoarser due to lack of use. Croaky, like his throat was full of gravel and sand.

"You sound surprised." The swordsman raised an eyebrow.

"I just was enjoying the peace and quiet." Sanji raised his swirly one right back.

"I can go back to not talking if you like." Zoro replied, the corner of his lips tugging up into a smug smirk before he quickly hid it again.

"No!" Sanji was surprised at his own yell, before he snorted to cover it and scowled, facing away, "Nami-san and the others were getting annoyed by your crappy silence. Nobody could understand what you wanted." That was an outright lie. Zoro made it blunt and clear what he wanted without talking even when he could.

Zoro frowned at him, before shrugging slightly, looking out to sea again and not allowing any hint of the smirk that was threatening his face, break out of it's tightly locked shell. Yawning again, he decided he'd stay here for a while. It wasn't two seconds later his head was drooped and he was fast asleep again.

Sanji eyed him for a few minutes, before snorting. It lacked conviction, and instead derived from relieved amusement. Good for nothing marimo headed moron, making him miserable over nothing but a lack of talking. Fighting. ... Companionship.

When had he become so goddamn soppy towards the stupid meathead?! Gah! Time to get over it! It was just plain weird, damn it! ... But he couldn't make his face muscles release the smirk on his lips, no matter how hard he tried.

Next morning Sanji blinked a little as he heard something funny in the background. Like... the clicking of a camera. Nami-san's camera... what the?

"Hn...?" he noised, feeling a weird weight leaning on his head. What the hell...? Blinking slowly, he saw... green pants. Swords. Haramaki. And dear lord he'd better not be leaning on Zoro's shoulder or he was gonna have a fit, and oh my God, he WAS!! The chef yelled and shoved the swordsman away, who instantly stopped himself falling over and turned a confused glare at the chef... before he put two and two together.

Nami ran away cackling before either of them could spot her, camera twirling around a finger as she sauntered up to Robin.

"Told ya I'd get it without them knowing, Robin." the navigator chuckled.

"I've never been more ecstatic." Robin replied with a sly smile. Nami blinked, before replying with a sarcastic 'Ha ha' and continuing to the storage room to develop her pictures.

"CRAP COOK!" Zoro yelled, now facing off with the chef, swords drawn.

"KUSO MARIMO!" Sanji yelled in return, glaring heavily at the stupid Marimo, with his stupid hair, and his stupid bony stupid face! He was so... STUPID and my God, he was the leading expert on vocabulary today, wasn't he? Che.

"Zoro's baaaack!" Luffy's voice chuckled from the background as the ship rocked back and forth with the power of their fighting.

The chef kept the banter to a full maximum, even while they were fighting so hard they could barely breathe. Sanji had never been so happy to hear someone else's voice in all his life, and he wasn't going to let it go silent again for a long time if he had to kill every damn mosquito on every damn island, anywhere.

--Extra random scene--

Zoro heaved a heavy sigh. Why was he shopping with Sanji? Because he'd picked the wrong crab on the beach? Stupid crab for hiding down the hole he hadn't pointed at! He'd find it and make it pay, the little bastard.

Sanji moved to another vendor, picking out some fruits and vegetables before moving back to Zoro and handing the bag over to him.

"Don't drop them, Marimo." the blonde commented. Zoro just grunted in acknowledgment before he raised his free (for the moment) hand and waved it at something.

"Stupid mosquito." he muttered. Sanji's boot snapped out, barely missing his nose and came down again, slamming the mosquito into the ground, his face shadowed and nasty. Zoro stared and the blonde shrugged a little at the look.

"I hate bugs." he commented, walking away from the swordsman. Zoro just stared after him, before muttering about the idiot dartboard eyebrow's wimpiness and following.

--Done--

**A/N: I hope you liked! :D It's pretty basic, but eh. :3 **


End file.
